Thursday, July 08, 2010

Now, Dawson said, accurate metadata has become a marketing tool for publishers, a shopping guide for consumers, and an absolute necessity for distributors and retailers. The growth of the importance of metadata, Dawson said, led to the creation of ONIX, or Online Information Exchange, an XML-based standardized format for transmitting information electronically. (XML, or extensible markup language, is a digital format that allows data to be easily reused in other forms.) XML software is said to be easy to use, inexpensive, and its tags or descriptions are easy for people, as well as machines, to read.

The metadata for ebooks is also important. Calibre, a popular ebook tool, uses metadata from LibraryThing. Libraries are in this, if not directly. OCLC has a service to enrich ONIX metadata with WorldCat information and authorities. The LibraryThing metadata can come from libraries.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Macon, Georgia will host the next OnLine AudioVisual Catalogers (OLAC) conference, from Friday, October 15, through Sunday, October 17, 2010, at the new Macon Marriott City Center. Registration will be available through September 20, and afterward if space allows.

Dr. Robert Ellett and Mac Elrod will be among our speakers.

The standard registration fee is $150.00 ($100.00 for LIS students), which includes three continental breakfasts and two lunches.

Macon is in central Georgia, approximately 75 miles south of Atlanta; it is easily accessible by shuttle bus from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

A preconference on NACO funnel training will be held on Thursday, October 14; the registration deadline is July 15.

The deadline for poster session applications has been extended to July 15.